Dinda admits to rushing back from injury

At a time, when every cricket fan in India was talking about Sourav Ganguly’s return to the Eden Gardens on Saturday, there was another lad from Bengal, who perhaps felt the same pressure, and failed to cope with it.

Ashok Dinda bowls against Mumbai Indians on April 6. Pic/Suresh KK

While the crowd cheered rapturously for Ashok Dinda; Gautam Gambhir and Brendon McCullum smashed 19 runs of his one over, and 28 of his two. The signs were clear that Dinda might be another case of a player rushing his comeback, just for the sake of IPL.

Surprise... The Bengal right-arm pacer, who suffered from side strain during PWI’s away game against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 17, made a surprise comeback against Mumbai Indians on May 3, which is just a little over two weeks. And the Kolkata pacer admitted yesterday that he had rushed his comeback.

Declaring himself a doubtful starter for PWI’s home game against Rajasthan Royals today, Dinda admitted he still hasn’t fully recovered from the injury, which takes much more than three weeks to heal, normally. “If we were doing well, I wouldn’t have come back as early as I did,” the Kolkata pacer said.

‘More important’ Dinda, who is part of the India ‘A’ team that would tour West Indies next month, was asked if IPL is more important than India A tour. “No, India is priority. That’s why I said I am a doubtful starter tomorrow. I will play only if I am fit,” the right-arm pacer tried covering up.

It indeed was a surprise to see Dinda coming back within three weeks, which was quite a contrast to what team management had indicated earlier. “He has a important tour coming up. We don’t want to rush him, that would be very selfish of us,” a very powerful team management member of PWI had told Mid Day two weeks back.

Pune still have a chance: Dinda Contrary to PWI skipper Sourav Ganguly’s statement on Saturday that the team’s chances of making it to knockouts were over, Dinda said if team can win all four of their remaining games, “anything can happen.”

“Twenty20 is the kind of format, where you start winning a few games, things change quickly. If we can win our next four games, who knows, we might even become champions of the season,” Dinda said.

For that to happen, PWI would first need to beat a very confident and solid unit of Rajasthan Royals today, and also need Dinda to play a major role in this game. The way it stands right now, both things look very unlikely to happen.